alexis ohanian, reddit cofounder

PR/mkting your website on the cheap

“What do you do?“

I heard this a lot for our first three months in Y Combinator. In fact, I still hear it.
Fortunately, though, my role as Steve's other half (the non-programming one)
has evolved beyond secretary and orderer-of-delivery-food. Some of you have
asked for suggestions, so I'm taking advantage of a long flight back from
StartupSchool to jot them down.

So, we all love these social1 sites that are so viral they don't need any real
marketing. Sure, there's a catch-22 when these brand new sites are worthless
without any initial users, but can't attract any users in the first place because,
well, they're still worthless. Creating fake users is an easy fix. Just be creative
with the usernames, please.

Ask for feedback. When you get it, respond to it -- fast2

These are users who have sought you out, start a conversation with them.
They're likely expecting a curt, robotic "We greatly appreciate your feedback...".
If you have to tell a user you appreciate them, you probably don't -- especially if
you're using the same kind of automated system we've all come to expect from
big business. I suspect the feeling a user gets receiving a prompt and human
email response well outweighs the cost of you writing it. Compared to
programming, it's a rather mindless exercise, so you won't even need an Alexis3
in your startup for it. Save it for the part of the day when you're feeling your
laziest.

Bloggers
For every TechCrunch and GigaOm4 there are plenty of startup bloggers who are
looking for new sites. You may notice some have already written about you
when you run the Google blogsearch on your startup. Email them. Keep it short
and as un-form-letter-ish as possible. Me thinks people can tell. Mike and Om
can wait, and if you've got a cool enough idea, they'll find you5.

"Traditional" Journalists
Trickier than bloggers, since the tale of a few kids starting a website has already
been pretty well trodden thanks to startups like reddit. Sorry about that. But
they're more likely to be interested in your story, since your site alone may not be
much of a story. Chasing mainstream appeal may also not be all that important
early on -- especially when they likely won't bring as much traffic as a great blog
post will. (On the other hand, if you've started Justin.tv, you can just skip the
rest of this. The media will find you.) However, being in newsprint will certainly
help your site gain some of that "mainstream" legitimacy, which is not only
cumulative, but will also likely impress your grandparents -- probably your
parents, too.
I don't think I have ever cold-called anyone, it just reminds me of the
telemarketers calling at dinnertime (how quaint, no? We had a "dinnertime" in
my house). Kids these days loathe email (or so I’ve heard) but it can be a
beautiful thing, just don't abuse it. Succinctness is something I'm still continuing
to work on (can't you tell?). Respect the recipient, whoever they are, and keep
things short. Furthermore, just like feedback emails, be prompt with replies.
Journalists in particular are always on deadlines and there's nothing that warms
their heart more6 than a fast reply with the information they need in an easily
digestible form.

Let’s get coffee sometime

If you’ve gotten a warm response, you’ve done something right, suggest meeting
for lunch or a beverage (it can be tea, boba tea, beer, whatever). And don’t be
late. The proposition of a drink/meal isn’t a skeezy bribe, just a convenient way
to become more than an email address to your interviewer. In fact you probably
won’t pay (most reporters expense their meals with interviewees).

Caution: Flak
You'll need a story, every startup has one. We certainly used the "a few young
college students in an apartment challenging the massive VC-funded startup"-
angle pretty often. I suspect most of you could ride that one, but it’s already a bit
stale. Every startup has a unique story, even if they share a common theme.

The valuable ability to speak in soundbytes (not the whole time, just for crucial
note-taking moments) is an unfortunate result of most news production
nowadays (television, print, whatever), but it could be the difference between
getting mentioned in a piece or not. (Another reason why email can be very
effective when you choose your words carefully). Practice, but don't practice how
you'll say it, practice what you'll say.

"Every interview is another chance to get your message out"

Cynicism and true media relations strategy paradoxically overlap here. This is
the textbook goal, right?7 This is what most reporters, bloggers, and people in
general are used to being bombarded with on a regular basis. As startups, we
are afforded the unique position of being the antithesis of so much that is wrong
with this current system. People interviewing you, or just interested in your
service, are not tools. They will know if you're treating them like one.

Contrary to popular belief

You don't need to be a "people person" or be exceptionally "well-spoken" to be
fantastic at interviews in any form. Steve was great at demoing reddit and
handling q&a -- it just didn't make any sense for him to be dealing with people all
the time. Ideally, the person who dislikes people the least ought to be the one
drumming up attention. Fortunately, I had a lot of free time in the day after
drawing the logo doodle.
Be tenacious
I believe this is from Joe Krauss, so hopefully it'll make you more inclined to heed
it. Granted, there's a fine line between being tenacious and being annoying, but
someone in your startup has got to try and walk it. I don't have any suggestions
about how to not be annoying (sorry, only child) but even if your competitors can
outspend you on marketing, there is no reason why they should outfight you. I
suspect that having a large budget encourages complacency, whereas staying
lean and counting all your remaining stickers means you'll think twice before just
shoving them on a streetsign. OK, that last part isn’t true – put your stickers
everywhere.

Hope this helps. You know where to reach me if it didn't and you want the ten
minutes of your life back.

PS Whoever submits this thing to scribd is going to be hearing from my lawyers.

Hehe.

---
1
I'm still not convinced that real "social" interaction can happen online.
Sometimes I worry that we're losing touch with human-to-human interaction.
Then I usually login to WoW and go on an MC raid.
2
Granted, this was much easier for us to do when we startedbut every single
feedback email is going to be read by either Steve or me. We're trying to get
better about the quickness our replies, but I've got quite a few I need to reply to
once this plane lands.
3
And by "an Alexis", I mean someone who can't program for shit.
4
Where's GigaCrunch when you need it?
5
Sadly, reddit was never on either site until our acquisition. But at least it's proof
that one can still have a fairly popular website without ever having graced their
pages.
6
I have no empirical evidence to support that it does, in fact, warm their hearts,
let alone more than anything else.
7
I've seen the textbook, this is the goal of every interview.